Launch! ”

"Change the formation!"

……

A world-renowned naval battle unfolded in the Philippine Sea. The billowing smoke was clearly visible from dozens of miles away.

With a loud "boom", the "Naniwa" that rushed to the front unfortunately became the first victim, and the sound of the rushing water began to sound from the stern of the ship, kicking off the prelude to sinking.

An officer cried: "Captain, the warship is badly damaged, it can't be saved, and the ship is about to sink!" ”

As soon as the enemy's battleship main gun hit, the "Naniwa" possessed by the moldy god was naturally going to be cool. As a thin-skinned cruiser, the "Naniwa" clearly took on a heavy burden that it should not have shouldered.

As the captain of the ship, Heihachiro Togo also wanted to cry without tears at the moment, who knew that the Spaniards on the opposite side would not fight the battleship and come to bully them, this "little bean ding"!

"Shut up, order the troops to continue firing at me, and as long as the ship has not sunk, the shelling cannot stop!"

The battered warship could not withstand the toss, and the more it insisted on firing its guns, the faster the warship would sink.

Such a simple truth, Togo Heihachiro naturally knows. But there is no way, this is where the battlefield Naniwa is located, and even if you want to withdraw from the battlefield, it is too late.

Anyway, the "Naniwa" can't be saved, so it's better to take the opportunity to fire a few shots, maybe even take away an enemy warship to accompany the funeral.

As for stopping losses in time and abandoning warships to jump into the sea to escape, such things are common in European countries, but in Japan this does not work.

The glory of the soldiers determines that they can't do this, abandon the ship and escape at this time, and they don't want to raise their heads and be human for the rest of their lives.

The officers and men of the "Naniwa" chose to fight to the end, but Admiral Sukehiro Ito, as the commander of the general fleet, could not sit idly by, the navy is not army horse manure, you can have as much as you want, and it is very expensive to train a qualified naval soldier.

The "wave speed" is already doomed, but the hundreds of officers and men on the warship cannot just give up.

Now that they are fighting the Spaniards, it is not known how many warships will be sunk, and if they all coexist with the warships, it is unknown how much of the Japanese navy will be left after this battle.

"The order goes down, and all officers and men must abandon the ship and escape if the warship is seriously damaged and cannot be rescued. Togo Heihachiro was ordered to carry out the order immediately. ”

The episode did not affect the development of the decisive battle, and the key to determining the outcome of this war was the decisive battle of the capital ships.

The sinking of the "Naniwa" is not the end, but the beginning. Immediately after that, the "Fuso" followed in the footsteps and kicked off the prelude to sinking.

Seeing all this happen, Ito was powerless. He wouldn't be willing to do that if he could. But the reality was cruel, the Japanese had only two pre-dreadnoughts, while the enemy had three.

There was no way, in a hurry, the Japanese government could only buy the Far Eastern Fleet of the British. This fleet can be called invincible in the Far East, but in essence it can only be considered second-rate.

The most advanced warships were occupied by the home fleet, and the Far Eastern Fleet took the turn of older warships, and even the "former dreadnoughts" were only two.

There is obviously a gap in the performance of the old British warships more than ten years ago and the new French warships that have just been in service for three or four years. In addition, the Japanese army was forced to go to the battlefield just a few days after it was obtained, and the operation was not skilled enough, so it was even more difficult to fight.

The Japanese Navy's advantage now has been concentrated in numbers, the original warships + the British Far East Fleet purchased, both in terms of the number of warships and the total tonnage, far surpassed the Spanish expeditionary fleet.

"Quality is not enough, quantity is to make up".

The principle that ants bite more elephants is also applicable in the navy, but the price paid is a bit large.

This is now proven, and the ordinary warships sent to entangle the Spanish capital ships are now playing out the most tragic scene.

The roaring artillery fire continued, and no matter how fierce the battlefield was, not a single Japanese warship chose to retreat, but a few Spanish warships withdrew from the battlefield after being damaged.

On the distant observation ship, Governor Chandler, who was on the front line, was looking at the battlefield with a telescope, and there was a clerk with a pen and a paper to keep recording.

A similar situation is happening not far away. Everything that happened on the battlefield was a valuable experience that was crucial for the Holy Roman Empire's navy, which lacked experience in naval warfare.

Governor Chandler, who came from the navy, has long been aware of this, and now the observation ships of the HRE Navy have been distributed in all directions of the battlefield, and hundreds of officers are observing the battlefield from all directions to collect data.

If you look closely, you can also find dozens of airships in the sky, also looking down, flying at an altitude of only a few hundred meters. If it weren't for the loud gunfire, you might have been able to hear the "click" of the camera.

These actions of ignoring the two warring parties naturally aroused the dissatisfaction of the navies of Japan and Spain, and then the navies of the two countries unanimously decided to ignore the existence of these nasty ghosts.

"Your Excellency the Governor, it's time to dine."

The voice of the attendant woke up the fascinated Governor Chandler from his "hobby". There is no doubt that it is not his job to collect data and information, and it is obviously beyond the scope of his job to leave the Governor's Palace and come here to join in the fun.

However, Austria has always been calm in the South Seas, there is no serious threat, and there is no place to expand, and there is not much work for the governor.

It makes sense to spend some time patrolling the sea. As for whether the Philippine Sea counts as a sphere of influence of the Holy Roman Empire, the question is as long as Governor Chandler himself decides.

Find a small island or a reef, plant a flag, and run the boat to enclose the land.

If anyone has an opinion, they can go to the HRE Ministry of Foreign Affairs to reason, or they can have a friendly meeting with the HRE Navy.

Looking at the watch in his hand, Chandler nodded: "It's really time, then let's eat!" Let the lads take turns to eat, and every scene on the battlefield must be recorded. ”

This is how the experience of naval warfare is accumulated, and although it is not as effective as going to the battlefield in person, it is still possible to accumulate valuable experience through observation.

Not far away, a bearded officer, about fifty or sixty years old, quipped: "Our Grand Governor, isn't it because he is old and his memory has deteriorated, and he has even forgotten to rotate in groups?" ”

"That's enough, Areth. Don't forget that you're a day older than me, and if your memory deteriorates in old age, you'll come first. ”

"It's not a big day, it's fifteen minutes! Even this can be mistaken, and sure enough, it is memory deterioration.

It's right to think about it, but I often run around the world, unlike you who stay in the gentle countryside every day, surrounded by a bunch of sycophants, and it's understandable that my memory declines quickly. ”

"It's a day after the early hours of the morning, so don't quibble. And which eye did you see me staying in Gentle Country? Who doesn't know that I hate bearded the most, and I don't know who sent you here. ”

"Stupid, of course it's me. Could it be that the governor has been in office for a long time, and he can't even figure out the division of powers within the navy......"

……

The quarrel between the two has long been strange to everyone. Fa Xiao and comrade-in-arms, and at the same time ascended to a high position, he was a legend in the Holy Roman Empire.

It's just that the two protagonists in "Legend" seem to be born with impulses, and when they are in China, they are okay, and they have to pay attention to aristocratic etiquette and have not clashed; When they arrived overseas, they didn't have so many scruples, and the two of them were completely exposed, and they almost got together when they met.

The two quarreled but did not affect the relationship between each other, if anyone ran to persuade the fight, they were guaranteed to be scolded by the two together.

"Don't talk about what is useless, have you noticed that the performance of the Japanese Navy is completely polar. Some of the warships are completely excellent, and some of them are just fooling. ”

Governor Chandler smiled slightly: "You just don't understand the situation. You must know that half a year ago, the total tonnage of the Japanese Navy was only more than 30,000 tons, but now it has swelled to nearly 100,000 tons.

The modernization process of the Japanese Navy has been less than 20 years since its inception, and where will they go to find so many qualified officers for a while?

In order to put this huge fleet into operation, the Japanese government not only recruited retired naval officers and men, but also recruited teachers and students from the naval academy, and it is said that some sailors were recruited from the civilian sector to make up the numbers.

Do you think Ito Yuhyung is stupid enough to dare to come out to a decisive battle with such a fleet? ”

Ares shook his head: "On the contrary, I think Ito's choice is clever. In peacetime, it is natural to train the officers and men well, and then consider the issue of a decisive battle with the enemy.

Now the situation is very obvious, the Spaniards have already arrived, and it is impossible to leave them time to train their troops.

If you can't avoid the battle at this time, not only will the army on the island fall into passivity, but even the morale of the Japanese navy that has been built up with great difficulty will be lost for a while.

Anyway, they had so many warships that the Spaniards couldn't eat them in a bite. Although the officers and men who have just been recruited are not qualified, most of them are still from the navy, and the biggest problem now is that they are not familiar with warships, and they have adapted to it after a battle, which is more effective than training for half a year in peacetime.

Just look at the battlefield chosen by the Japanese, which is only forty nautical miles from Luzon, and even if they lose the battle, they can withdraw the main forces.

The situation was very good, although the losses of the Japanese army were a little larger, but the losses of the Spaniards were not small. Don't look at the small number of warships they sank, but there were many injuries.

After the battle, most of the Spaniards' warships had to be repaired, and it would be difficult to regain their combat effectiveness for the next two months.

If it weren't for our help, even if they had won the battle, the Spaniards would have lost the war because they couldn't keep up.

Well, the final outcome is uncertain, mainly depending on what the country wants, and how much the British support the Japanese government has. ”

"Your analysis is correct, one side is on an expedition, the other side is fighting at home, and time is on the side of the Japanese.

The Philippine archipelago is richer than many people think. From the 16th century onwards, it was a transit point for trade, with tens of thousands of tons of silver, thousands of tons of gold, and several spices, tea, silk, and porcelain all flowing into Europe from here.

In addition to this, the Philippine archipelago itself is also very rich in resources. Whether it is agricultural resources, or gold and silver minerals, there is no shortage of everything. In terms of value, it will not be much lower than the entire Nanyang Governorate.

Spain has been operating here for more than 300 years, and the bureaucracy has been taking root here for more than 300 years, except for some that have returned to Europe.

The Japanese made a lot of money this time, otherwise they would not have had the money to buy warships from the British. The goods that were directly plundered were skimmed first, and the Japanese government itself could not figure out that thing.

After the occupation of the Philippine Islands, the food crisis in Japan was solved, and the shortage of coal, copper and iron ore was also solved.

With these things alone, Japan is able to save tens of millions of dollars in foreign exchange expenses every year. If the business is done well, the income of the Philippine Islands alone will be able to catch up with half of Japan's fiscal revenue.

In a sense, the Japanese are now taking the money of the Spaniards and fighting with Spain.

With the poor financial situation of the Spanish government and the rotten bureaucratic system, if it continues to fight like this, I am afraid that the Spaniards will be the first to be unable to hold on. ”

Governor Chandler couldn't help but drool when he saw the conversation. There is no way, the Philippine archipelago is so rich that there is no place in the South Seas that can compare with it except for the island of Java in the hands of the Dutch.

As a qualified colonist, it is impossible to be tempted when encountering such a rich place. From the analysis, it can be heard that even the resources of the Philippine Islands have been figured out, and it is obvious that they have been prepared for a long time.

In the past, in the hands of the Spaniards, Governor Chandler had no way to do it due to political influence, but now there is finally a ray of light.

As long as the Spaniards were defeated and relinquished their ownership of the Philippine Islands, the Viceroyalty of the South Seas would have a chance to acquire the Philippine Islands. After all, there is no political pressure to rob the Japanese.

Not only Governor Chandler's idea, but the colonists of the entire Viceroyalty of the South Seas were anxiously waiting for this to happen.

If it had not been for the order of the Vienna government, the Spaniards would not have said that they had repaired it with the help of the dockyard, and I am afraid that they would not even have wanted to obtain logistical supplies.